Walking from Melbourne to Ballarat

Between 8:30PM on the 24th of June 2021 and 10PM on the 25th of June 2021, I walked from my home in the inner-suburbs in Melbourne and ended up at Ballarat railway station, a journey of 111km.

I was originally going to write a blog post about the trip as a whole, describing all the roads I went down and stuff like that. Problem is, I am a terrible writer and I was never satisfied with what I wrote for that blog, so I am going to just make a post about some of the moments I had doing this long and ardous trip.

The public toilet map lied to me

There is a website known as the National Public Toilet Map that does exactly what it says on the tin, show you a map of toilets. While it has been useful to me on numerous occassions, this trip was not one of those times.

The map informed me that there was a toilet at a BP in Caroline Springs that had a toilet avaliable at all times of day, however, upon asking if I could use the toilet, I was informed that the toilet was closed and would not open until 5am (I had asked just after midnight). A minor setback but it did not stop me from continuing along.

The dog encounter

Next, we jump to the last leg of the trip, specifically to an area west of the Millbrook township. I was walking along Old Melbourne road (which is already terrifying), and found myself encountering a dog. Normally, dog encounters do not worry me too much, but this particular case was worrying just because of how willing the dog was to protect its land, as well as the dog being difficult to see due to it being nighttime at this point. There was an open gate that the dog used to chase me, and I ran away in a sleep-deprived terror while the dog finally stopped following me and barked at me in hopes of me never coming back. Normally this would not be a notable encounter, but this was one of the only encounters I have had with a dog during the trip, being a significantly more notable encounter then it normally would.

The family who wanted to know that I was ok

During my various travels I have encountered numerous people who were concerned by this little hobby I indulge in and have offered to give me lifts. I appreciate them and I hope they get to live their best lives.

One of these encounters occurred just before I reached Dunnstown, one of the last towns on the trip. A woman pulled over and asked me what I was doing and if I needed a lift, I explained what I was doing and politely declined the offer and we went our sepreate ways.

An hour later, I was almost into Warrenheip when I encountered a man who wanted to get me to somewhere safe. He introduced as the womans brother and had apparently gone out of his way to see if I was ok. He noted that my clothing choice made me hard to see and also made mention of country folk helping out one another. I thanked him for his troubles and watched the legend head back to Dunnstown.

Thank you to everyone who offered a lift, I know you did not have to do any of that, but the fact that you all wanted to provide support makes me smile.

The hallucinations

By the time I finished my trip, I had gone without sleep for almost forty hours. I noticed that I was acting a bit strange as the trip progressed, and also noticed some hallucinations. The hallucinations were not all that bad, mostly just seeing people and animals that did not exist, nothing that could completely stop me from walking, but it is a thing that you should know if you ever decide to go without a full nights worth of sleep. My favourite hallucination was seeing a group of three people having a conversation that ended up being a caravan.

The aftermath

I finally reached Ballarat station at 10pm, and when I got there, I was in pain both physically and mentally. 

While my legs were surprisingly fine, my feet were not. They were covered in blisters that made me shamble for the last hour of my walk. I am still recovering from a blister a the sole of my right foot as I write this, although it has noticeably gotten better since my trip. 

My brain was also exhausted from being up for almost forty hours. During my train ride back to Melbourne I found myself constantly falling in and out of a state of sleep, which followed me into the toilet. This state of exhaustion also led to me missing the tram stop that I needed to get off at. I was also noticeably very stressed out from my trip, as I was feeling very queasy and was breaking into cold sweats. 

Conclusion

Overall, it was a pretty interesting experience, I am not sure if I would walk for twenty-five hours straight again, but I definitely would be down for shorter journeys.